A DESPERATE MARCH 
591 
Our purpose being- a good one, we kept up the fire with 
feverish energy for fully two hours. Then we left it to die 
out of its own accord. Kasim fried a slice of the sheep’s 
tail, and after very great exertions managed to swallow it. 
I had but little better fortune with the lobsters. The rest 
of our “provisions” we left behind us, not wishing to 
burden ourselves unnecessarily. But I took the empty 
chocolate tin with me. I was going to drink the water of 
the Khotan-daria out of it! After that we had a good 
sleep beside the fire, which prevented us from feeling the 
chilliness of the night. 
May 4th. We began to move at three o’clock in the 
morning, and at four o’clock made a start. Then, with our 
strength drooping at every step, and our legs tottering- 
under us, and with innumerable halts, we stumbled on till 
nine o’clock. Then the desert ocean once more opened its 
ravenous jaws before us, and appeared to be waiting with 
malicious joy the fatal moment when it should devour us. 
After the three poplars, we saw no more ; and the tamarisks 
were so few and far between, that we could scarcely see 
from one to the other. Our courage began to sink ; we 
began to be afraid it was merely a depression we had passed, 
and that we should soon be engulfed again in the ever- 
lasting sea of sand. At nine o’clock we fell helpless at 
the foot of a tamarisk, and there we lay, exposed to the 
burning sun, for ten mortal hours. 
Kasim was sinking fast. He was incapable of digging 
a hole in the sand to lie in ; and, as he was also unable 
to cover me with cool sand, I suffered terribly from the 
heat. All day long we never spoke a word. Indeed, 
what was there we could talk about } Our thoughts 
were the same, our apprehensions the same. The fact 
is w'e really could not talk ; we could only whisper or hiss 
out our words. 
Where now were the sandstorms which a week ago inter- 
posed such a perfect screen between us and the sun ? We 
looked in vain for the black cloud, which alone could .shield 
us from the coppery glow. Sun and desert had conspired 
tog-ether for our destruction. 
o 
